


It Took A Long Time To Find You (But I Finally Found You)

by cecilia095



Category: New Girl
Genre: F/M, Season Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-05-13 22:15:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5718991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cecilia095/pseuds/cecilia095
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You told me you loved me on the roof last night, remember?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Took A Long Time To Find You (But I Finally Found You)

**Author's Note:**

> If I were in charge of writing the end of the season, this is how I'd do it, basically. 
> 
> \---
> 
> Title comes from "I Found You" by Alabama Shakes.

_A Week Before The Wedding_

"Schmidt, man, are you crying into our bathroom mirror right now?"

"Um." He turns around, swipes at his eyes a little too dramatically and then says, "Maybe. Yes. Yes, I am, Nicholas, I'm  _bawling_."

"Okay, well..." Nick is afraid to approach him all the way, but he really needs to squeeze by to get to the urinal. "Why?"

"My wedding is in seven days and I just - I don't think I have my Crying Face down pat."

"I think your crying face is fine, buddy," Nick assures him, and Schmidt just sniffles in response. 

"I think it could use some work," Schmidt says, looking back into the mirror and scrunching up his nose, then letting out this awful wail that Nick would prefer never to hear again.

Nick unzips his pants and turns to face the urinal. Schmidt doesn't even peek. "Are you supposed to cry at weddings? Is that a thing? Because I don't have a Crying Face, I don't  _cry_."

"Tell that to 2011-Nick. He cried like a - like a _wi_ _ttle_   _bitch_."

"Yeah, he might've drunkenly cried into Caroline's voicemail a lot that year, but he hasn't cried since."

"I just - I don't want to see Cece in her dress and  _not_ cry, you know?" Schmidt says, and Nick wants to laugh, but then he turns around at looks at how  _serious_ his best friend is about this.

He zips his pants back up and gives Schmidt a pat on the shoulder. "You're gonna cry your eyes out, man. Your nose is just gonna be - just  _dripping_ in snot, and you'll even get some on Cece's upper lip when you kiss her, and -" Schmidt's wrinkling his nose in disgust. "Am I not helping?"

"It's just the - the snot part. I don't  _snot_."

"I don't know, I think you might snot when you see Cece in her dress."

—

Someone knocks on the door, and Jess looks up from her spot at the dining room table - ' _Ribbon curling is a serious duty, you guys! We will_ not _be interrupted_!' - and does a head count. "We're all here. Um. I guess I'll get it."

Schmidt shakes his head and says, "Let me. You just keep on curling that ribbon and don't stop until it's perfect."

"Ha! Schmidt, I'm  _Jess_. I've never  _not_ curled a perfect ribbon."

Schmidt races to the front door and twists the doorknob open. "Probably the guy about the ice sculp -" He swallows. "Um.  _Not_ the guy about the ice sculpture."

"Who is it, Schmidt?" Jess asks nosily, popping her head up. 

For the first time in probably his entire life, Schmidt has nothing to say.

Cece looks up from  _her_ pile of ribbons - not as pristine as Jess's,  _obviously_. "Babe, who is it?"

"Um. If I say 'Your Mom' will you run and hide in my bedroom?" he asks, and everyone at the table sees the color drain from Cece's face. 

"M-My mom?" She races up and joins her fiancé at the door, and then she widens her eyes. "Mom. How'd you know I was here? Better yet, why are you here? Let's start with that."

"I saw Schmidt's Facebook status," Cece's mom admits, and Schmidt points to himself proudly. 

"You added my mom on Facebook?"

"Well, she accepted!"

"He writes vigorously long statuses. Are you  _sure_ you can live with that for the rest of your life, Cecelia?"

" _Mom_."

"Cece, do you have a problem with the length of my Facebook statuses? You 'Like' all of them!"

" _Schmidt_."

Cece's mom's hands are folded in front of her, and she clears her throat, and  _oh boy_ , here we go again. Cece braces herself for it, and so does Schmidt, and then - "I can't miss my daughter's wedding."

Cece and Schmidt both widen their eyes. 

"Y-You told me not to send you an invitation," Cece says pointedly. 

"And you were sure not to."

"Because you  _told me_ -"

"Wait a second. Mrs. Parekh, does this mean you approve? No, of course you don't approve. Oh God, is there a handsome, Indian bachelor hiding in the elevator just waiting to seduce Cece? Is he gonna come out? Okay, important, is he taller than me?" Schmidt asks, and then he levels his hand up and shrugs when Cece nudges him on the arm. "It's important, Cece."

Mrs. Parekh sighs. "You clearly love my daughter more than anyone else has ever loved my daughter, and not just based off of the weird Facebook statuses you dedicate to her."

Schmidt slides an arm across Cece's backside and swallows. "Well, yeah," he says, and then he blinks twice, and he's more serious than he's been this entire time. 

Cece's crying, and it might be the hundredth time she's cried this week, but she is, and then she reaches an arm out and grabs her mom by the forearm. "Do you want to come to the wedding?"

—

It's 3:42 A.M. by the time Jess gets into the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face and put on the only clean pair of pajamas she has and her hand is  _cramping_ because  _ow_ , ribbon curling  _hurts_ , and as soon as she turns off the faucet, along comes Nick.

Jess laughs at how tired he looks, and then she grabs his toothbrush off of the sink and squeezes some toothpaste onto it before handing it to him.

"Thanks."

"Mhm."

"I can't believe the wedding's in six days," Jess says, toothbrush still in her mouth.

Nick's laughing. "I think I understood that," he says, pulling his toothbrush out of his. "Me too. My hand's gonna fall off if I have to curl one more ribbon, though."

"Right?!" Jess lifts up her throbbing hand to Nick's view, and he takes it in his own and almost examines it.

"Mine's worse," he says, "but you sure as hell know how to curl a ribbon."

"Taught myself," she says, jokingly saluting him. "I can't believe it's 4 A.M. I almost don't even want to go to sleep."

"Because Schmidt's gonna wake us up in three hours for Decoration Duty?"

Jess laughs. "Exactly."

"So let's... do something."

Jess swallows. 

"Not - I didn't mean - Just  _hangout_ ," Nick says, and her mind didn't even  _go there_ , Miller.

After a minute passes and neither of them have said anything, Nick just asks, "Roof?" and Jess nods.

—

Cece's asleep, and Schmidt's probably pretending to be asleep because he's too anxious about the wedding, and Winston's on the night shift or at Aly's or he's somewhere that's not the loft, and it's just Jess and Nick, on the roof, pajama pants and bathrobes and a two glasses of mimosas even though Schmidt's going to want them fully sober in a few hours.

They're not sitting too close to each other, but they're close enough that Jess can feel Nick's breath on her every time he laughs.

"So, I think it's really cool that Cece's mom showed up," he says, and Jess agrees, sipping her drink. She laughs. She's tipsy on a roof with Nick Miller at four in the morning, and it's not the worst place to be. "What are you gonna do when your mom doesn't wanna come to our wedding because she hates me?"

Jess widens her eyes and almost chokes on her drink, and then she says, " _What_?" all sharply. "I just...  _Our wedding_? You said -"

"I don't know, I don't see myself ending up with anyone else, do you?"

"Do I see you ending up with anyone else?"

"No, do you see  _you_ ending up with anyone else?"

"But you asked me if I -"

"Jess, stop avoiding the question."

"Nick, stop making things awkward!"

Nick rubs his chin and sets down his almost-finished mimosa. "Sometimes, Jess, I just... I think about who I love in my head and you're just  _there_. I'm sorry."

She bites down on her lip and she wants to be mad at him for being so blunt, because she can't ever be blunt without  _feeling_ , feeling so hard, but here they are. 

"You too, but so are Winston, and Cece, and Schmidt, and Coach..."

"You know what I mean, Jess," he says. " _Love_ love."

Jess feels her cheeks get hot. "It's getting late, Nick," she says, and then she stands up, her mimosa in hand. 

"I thought we were staying up."

"I don't know, I'm kind of tired," she lies. "Goodnight. Put your glass in the sink when you're done with it, okay?"

—

It's 5:22 A.M. and he can't sleep so he kind of just barges into Schmidt's room and of course Schmidt is up because he can't sleep because he's getting married in six days.

"Shh. Cece's out."

"I know," Nick whispers. "I keep messing up, man."

"What, on the ribbons? I know, but you can't beat yourself up Nicholas. Some people are born into this world to be Ribbon Curlers, and you're just - you're not one of them. It's okay. We'll get through this."

"With  _girls_."

Schmidt raises an eyebrow and whispers, "Which  _girls_?"

"Umm. Remember Yolanda Winston?"

It takes Schmidt a second, but then he hits Nick on the arm. "Jess?  _Jess_? Before  _my_ wedding? No! Take it back! Whatever you did, whatever you gave her, whatever you - if you stuck  _Little You_ somewhere on  _Little Her_ , just pretend it never happened, just -"

"I didn't stick  _Little Me_ on  _Little Her_ , you idiot, I just told her I loved her because we were tipsy on the roof and we had _orange juice_."

"You got tipsy from drinking  _orange juice_? You can do that now?"

"I think so."

"Look, just -" Schmidt rolls his eyes and looks at his still-sleeping fiancée, and then he brings Nick out into the hallway. "Mess up  _after_ the wedding."

"Got it. Good talk, buddy. I'm gonna go pass out now. Don't wake me up at seven to curl ribbons."

—

_Six Days Before The Wedding_

Cece tries on her dress for Jess, because even though Jess has seen her in it ten times  _ten wasn't enough_ , and now they're cooped up in Jess's room and Jess is staring in admiration - and a little bit of envy - at how much more beautiful an already-beautiful-enough person becomes when they put on a wedding dress.

"Are you nervous?"

Cece bites down on her lip. "If I say 'Yes', don't tell Schmidt. I'm supposed to be the cool one. It was our deal."

"Oh, you're still the cool one, Ceec. This morning he stole Winston's waffles out of the toaster and said, ' _Your hips will thank me when you're getting into your tux for the wedding_ ' and just walked out of the room. No one's seen him since."

"Yeah, he does that," Cece says, rolling her eyes. "Um... Do I look okay?"

"Do you ' _look okay_ '?" Jess is laughing. Duh. You're a model and you've always been the quote, unquote  _Pretty Friend_ , and - "Word around the loft is that Schmidt's practicing what kind of cry to do when he sees you in that."

"Awwww," Cece says, like that's the most romantic thing he's done for her or something. (It's not. He's  _Schmidt_.)

"Does it feel weird knowing this is the last time you're ever going to do this?"

Cece narrows her eyes, but then she says, "No. I really love him, Jess.", as if Jess doesn't know, or witness it enough.

"I love him too. He and I are kind of getting married too, you know. He marries you, he marries me. It's just the rules," Jess says, her hands up in defense.

"Ha. And when you marry Nick we'll what, we'll all be one weird ass polyamorous group? I mean, Schmidt wouldn't mind that, he's kind of in love with Nick on the side, so..."

"Wait, what - Go - Go back to that part, the -" Jess shakes her head. "Why does everyone think that's gonna happen, me and Nick?"

"You two stayed up until five in the morning drinking together," she says, and Jess's face gets hot. "He came into Schmidt's room after. I pretended to be asleep. Good way to get all the deets, B-T-W."

"He told me he loved me, kind of."

"Well." Cece presses her lips together. "Do you love him?"

"I mean, he's  _Nick_ , of course I - Why are you smiling?"

"What? I can't smile?"

"No, you can smile, you're getting married in six days, but you can't smile about  _me and Nick_."

"Unzip me," Cece says, ignoring her. Jess obliges, and then after a few seconds of delicate tugging, she asks, "Love is supposed to be messy, right?"

"Figuratively. Schmidt says if I smear cake on him at the wedding like brides and grooms traditionally do he'll bite my face off, and I don't think he means that in the cute way."

—

"Hey Nick." She figures avoiding him will make things weird. Also, he has the majority of the ribbon, and not even one-third of the favors have curled ribbons on them yet.

It's just the two of them in the dining room. Winston's sleeping and Cece and Schmidt are having lunch with Cece's mom, because they're trying to squeeze months and months of missed time into like, five days. 

Nick curls the ribbon he's holding all wrong, and then he drops his scissors. "I liked it better when I was on Cake Tasting duty."

"I think we all did," Jess says with a laugh, sitting down across from him. "Here, give 'em to me."

He hands her the scissors and the bunch of ribbon. "About last night..."

"It's okay," she says. "I actually wanted to apologize to you. I should've put your glass in the sink too, I mean, you were almost done."

"Jess, I shouldn't have told you what I told you."

She clears her throat and doesn't look up from the ribbon she's curling. "Why? I liked it."

"You  _liked_ it?"

"I liked it."

"Jess, don't do this."

She curls the same strand of ribbon over and over and over, and she won't look up at him.

"Jess, what are you even  _doing_? What - What are you thinking about right now?"

"Um. You, Nick."

"Okay. I'm thinking about you too."

"I know," she says, and she's laughing. "You told me you loved me on the roof last night, remember?"

—

It's eleven at night and Schmidt throws himself onto his bed because if he has to deal with  _one more person_ who says, "Sorry, Mr. Schmidt, we just can't release that many doves at the ceremony", he'll - he'll -  _Whatever_. It remains a dream.

Cece comes into the bedroom a few minutes later and just plops herself down next to him. "Hey."

He sighs. "Hey babe. Doves are a no-go. Are you upset?"

"No. I kind of hate birds. Hey, Schmidt?"

He rolls over onto his back and stares at the ceiling, and then he looks at Cece, because how can he not look at Cece? "Yeah."

"Do you remember what my mom said at lunch today?"

"Which part? She spoke more than I do, and that  _never_ happens."

"She said, ' _If you're marrying a man who doesn't cry the second you walk down that aisle in your wedding dress, then turn around and wait until you find one who does_ ', and I - I don't think that's true, honey, you don't have to cry. I won't be mad, and I won't pull a Shivrang and marry one of the guests, I swear."

Schmidt's glad she can joke about that now. 2013-Cece _could_ not. He's tried. He sits up and leans over, smooching her on the shoulder. "I've been practicing my Crying Face. I haven't found  _the_ Crying Face yet, but I'll get there, I will. Nick said I need two, three more days of practice tops."

"Won't you ruin your pressed powder if you cry?" Cece asks, and Schmidt widens his eyes and says, "Damn it."

"Look, Schmidt, whatever happens - the ribbons and the stupid birds and who knows, the cake might not even be  _that_ good -"

"It  _better_ be! I paid six-hundred dollars for it."

"You  _what_?"

"Oh, don't worry babe, I took it out of my 'Incase Nick or Winston Get Thrown In Jail' fund. We're good." 

"Why do you have a - Never mind. It's Nick and Winston. I get it. But babe, listen, I'm trying to be like, sentimental here."

Schmidt raises an eyebrow. "Let me first," he says, and he takes both of Cece's hands into his. "I don't care if I ruin my pressed powder. Oh, it's most definitely not cheap, and it's really important to me, but I don't care if I ruin it."

"Are you trying to tell me something?"

"That I love you. I love you so, _so_  much, Cece, and I'm an anxious mess not only because the DJ  _better_ not mess up the order of the music - seriously, it's - it's a thing, it has an  _order_ , - but because you're marrying  _me_ and I still don't get it sometimes because you're... well... you're  _you_ , you know? You could have anyone."

"Ugh." She swipes underneath her eyes and sniffles, and she's not supposed to cry until the day of,  _maybe_ the night before. "Are you gonna make me say something nice now or can we go to bed?"

"We can go to bed. I have to be up at five. I'm meeting one last man about the doves."

"No doves, Schmidt!"

—

_Five Days Before The Wedding_

"Do you want to know what I wrote on my valet card?"

Jess shuts the fridge and sets the orange juice carton down on the counter, rubbing at her eyes. "Um. The  _wha_ \- Oh. The valet cards. No."

Here's the thing: Three years ago, there was a kind-of, sort-of first date, and there was Russell, the only man Jess dated that they both ever loved, and there were valet cards, and they couldn't, for the love of God, out loud, say what the hell they were to each other, and _then_ they couldn't show each other the valet cards either because they  _sucked_ and maybe they still suck because it's three years later and Jess's stomach drops at the  _mention_ of 'valet cards' and she can't let Nick know what she wrote on hers.

"Why is that coming up right now, at eight o'clock in the morning, while Winston is so clearly trying to concentrate on making his waffles?"

Winston's leaning in front of the toaster, squinting at it. "You gotta time these sons of bitches  _juuuuust_ right, or else they'll get all hard. Or Schmidt'll just come out of his room and  _steal them_ ," he says, looking around for any sign of Schmidt. "Anyway, Winnie's good. Continue talking about whatever the hell it is you two are talking about."

"No,  _don't_ continue," Jess says, pointing at Nick before he can open his mouth.

—

It's 10 A.M. when Jess walks into her room and finds a sticky note on her desk. It just reads: '?' and then she flips it over. 

That side says: 'What was on my valet card. Should've said 'Love of my damn life' instead but I'm Nick and I suck. - Nick'

—

It's 11 A.M. when she opens Nick's door without knocking, or warning, and  _Oh_ , hey Miller, put some pants on.

"Nothing you haven't seen," he says with a shrug, sliding into a pair of sweatpants. "What's up, Jess?"

She drops the sticky note into his lap and bites down on her lip. 

"Oh."

"Mine said 'Question Mark' too," she says.

"Oh."

"Is that bad?"

"Well... no. Because that's what mine said, also, so."

"Do you want me to leave?" she asks.

"No Jess, I never 'want you to leave', but I  _do_ want to take a nap, so..."

Jess nods, getting the hint. "Right. Um. Okay. I'll see you later."

"You might," he teases. "I mean, we  _do_ run into each other a lot."

"Shut up, Miller."

—

Jess walks in from grocery shopping at one-thirty, and Cece's  _crying_ , - like full-on  _wailing_ right there on the couch, - and this wasn't supposed to happen until  _at least_ the night before. 

Jess drops all of the groceries at the door and yells, "WINSTON! COME GET THE GROCERIES!"

"I'm bathing Furguson!" he yells back from what  _better_ not be the bathroom, because  _ew_.

"Cece, Ceec,  _Cece_ , what's the matter?" 

Cece just looks at Jess and sobs for what feels like an hour, and then Jess sits down next to her, taking Cece's hair in her hands and pushing it away from her face. "Is it Schmidt? Your mom? Did you lose the dress?"

"It's -" Pause, sob. "My -" Another sob. "My vows."

Jess raises an eyebrow. "What about your vows, Ceec?"

"I haven't written them. At all. Not one word." She stops crying as hard as she was crying when she first walked in, and now Jess feels like she's talking to a somewhat-human again. "You know that episode of SpongeBob Nick watches like... over and over and over? The one he doesn't shut up about even though he's thirty-something and shouldn't be watching _SpongeBob_."

"The one with that obnoxious yet  _stupidly_ catchy campfire tune?"

"Ugh. No. Not that one. The other one."

"Oh. The one where SpongeBob has to write a paper but all he has on the page is 'The' and - Cece, what do your vows have to do with SpongeBob's Boating School essay?"

"My vows," she says, "look like that paper."

"Oh."

"I've got nothing, Jess," Cece says, burying her head in her hands and crying some more. "I'm marrying the love of my life in less than five days and I can't think of a single word to say to him when I do."

"Please don't ask me to write them for you, Ceec. I'd do anything for you, and for Schmidt, but I'm no good at writing other people's vows. My dad tried it when he married Ashley and I just - I messed them all up. Hint: Don't refer to someone as 'Trashley' in wedding vows, it won't go over well."

Cece shakes her head and looks up at Jess. "No, of course not, although I  _was_ about to bribe Winston..."

" _Winston_? I'm offended. Why didn't you ask me?!"

"You just told me not -"

"Whatever. Cece, just - What do you want to say to him?"

"Well, I don't know, what would  _you_ say if you were marrying the only person you want to be with?"

Jess leans over to the coffee table and grabs a tissue for Cece out of the tissue box, and then says, "I might have a few things."

—

_Four Days Before The Wedding_

"Nicholas, I'm sorry I told you to mess up after the wedding. You can mess up before. Or during. Wait, no, not  _during_. Or at least, if you mess up during, mess up after our first dance as husband and wife. And mess up like,  _away_ from the dance floor. Or the guests. Maybe in the bathroom?"

"Schmidt, shut up and let me help you write your vows, because if Cece finds out you waited until four days before the wedding she'll kill you, and then there'll _be_ no wedding, and then you bought doves for  _nothing_."

"You don't  _buy_ them, you dumb little man-child, you  _rent_ them."

"Vows. Now. Focus."

—

Winston asks Aly to be his girlfriend in front of everyone, at the loft, just like that. It's such an un-Winston thing to do, and Schmidt almost has a panic attack because, "SHE'S NOT GONNA SAY YES, DUDE. THEY  _NEVER_ SAY YES."

But damn it, Winston has been trying  _all_   _year_ for this, and not just because he needed a date to Cece and Schmidt's wedding. No, he actually kind of loves her. Like one night he told Cece, "Do you ever just look at someone and you just  _know_?", and  _duh_ , because Schmidt, but Cece was all, "Wait, do you feel that way about  _Aly_?", and then she told everyone else, and then everyone else was onboard, and here they are months later, and Schmidt's hands are  _sweating_ and Nick is leaning over Cece and Jess asking, "What'd she say? Was it 'no'? I'm gonna have to get him through this."

Aly laughs at first.

"I'm not a smooth guy," Winston warns her. "But I do love you."

"Yeah, well, lucky for you I love you too."

Cece and Jess hug and Nick throws his hands in the air and Schmidt shout-whispers, "I DON'T THINK A PERSON OF THE FEMALE GENDER WHO'S NOT JESS OR HIS MOM HAS EVER SAID THAT TO WINSTON BEFORE. BIG MOMENT, AM I RIGHT?"

—

"So. Winston has a date to the wedding. And a girlfriend."

Nick nods. "I'm proud of him. I like Aly. She's better than that bus driver he dated, although she  _did_ look like she was fantastic in bed."

Jess wrinkles her nose. "She  _did_?  _Where_?"

"You know what, just - Let me have that one, Jess."

She does. It's almost midnight, and they're on the roof again, because Aly and Winston are so-loudly consummating their relationship downstairs and Cece and Schmidt are doing the same thing Aly and Winston are doing a room over, and Jess can't even remember the last time she's _kissed someone_.

Nick takes a long swig of his beer and he's looking at nothing in particular, and then when he sets his beer down he looks at Jess. Just... looks at her. 

"Are you ever scared?" 

Jess blinks a few times and takes a sip of her own beer, and then asks, "Of?"

"Everyone doing the thing you and I can't seem to do."

Jess doesn't ask him to specify, because deep down she knows. She looks down at her beer bottle instead of up at Nick and just says, "Yeah. Sometimes. Are you?"

"Um." He laughs. "Always."

"Yeah. I'd like to change my answer." She raises her beer bottle up and says, "'Always' for me too, actually."

Nick nods, and Jess just tightens the ties on her bathrobe. 

"I  _never_ thought Cece would get married before me."

"Yeah, and you think I thought Schmidt would beat me?"

"Sometimes my mom texts me just - just the engagement ring Emoji, and then a question mark. I know, she uses those now, Emojis. It's her way of checking whether or not I'm still single without being _too_ forward."

"Ouch." Nick takes another sip of his beer. "What do you tell her?"

"That I'm going to die alone, obviously," she says, and she's half-joking and also half-not.

"Jess, come on, you know... You know that's not true," he says, and he sounds like he wants to make her believe him, but he's also not doing much about the whole 'making sure she doesn't die alone' thing.

"Do I?" She laughs sarcastically and takes a long sip of beer. She doesn't even like beer. "Look," she says after a minute, "if I could take it back, I wouldn't have written, 'Question Mark' on my valet card."

"Yeah, well..."

The air around them is quiet, and kind of hot, and Jess half-gulps when Nick takes her hand in his, because it's a little easier for him to reach her tonight. They're sitting close and the table feels smaller and sometimes he smiles at her like he wants to give her the world but doesn't know where to start. 

He rubs his thumb over her knuckles and says, "You're not gonna be alone, Jess."

—

_Three Days Before The Wedding_

"IT'S COACH, BITCHES!"

"Ernie, formally greet your friends, please."

"Right, May says I gotta not do that whole, 'IT'S COACH, BITCHES!' thing, but you're all still sons of bitches, and Schmidt? That shirt is  _too_ damn tight."

"I know! Isn't it great?"

—

Coach and May are staying with them before the wedding, and if the loft didn't have enough occupants already...

Jess offers up her room and takes the couch, because she secretly likes sleeping out in the living room. 

It's two o'clock in the afternoon when she helps them get settled in, and just... "You can put your stuff anywhere but on my craft table, Coach. You know this."

"So, things sure change in a year, huh?" he asks.

Jess glares at the carry-on he sticks  _smack dab_ in the middle of her craft table and grunts. "Sure, but not my craft table, that's been the same for years, so just - Don't touch anything."

"I mean, I'm a  _New Yorker_. Like an 'I eat hot dogs from suspicious looking buckets of water on the side of the street' New Yorker."

"So does Nick, and he  _definitely_ doesn't live in New York."

"Yeah, now that you mention it..."

May laughs and stands on her toes to smooch Coach on the shoulder, and then she excuses herself. "I need a shower. Long plane ride. Thanks for letting us stay in your room, Jess."

"Anytime."

Coach kneels onto the floor and unzips his garment bag. "It's my suit for the wedding. The wedding. I can't believe my boy Schmidt is gonna be _married_. But Cece and Schmidt are _so_  cute, are they not cute?"

"Yeah, they're great, Coach."

"And freakin'  _Winston_ has a girl. And she's like, an eight. How did  _that_ happen?"

"Yeah, we all still don't know, actually..."

"What about you, Jess? Anything happen on these sheets May and I should know about before we do it on 'em?"

"You will  _not_!" Jess grunts, and then she looks down to the floor. "And no. No sir. Nope. Nada."

"Oh, that's - I'm sorry, I didn't mean to - Look, thanks for letting us stay in your room, Jess. We won't do it on your bed, pinky swear," he says, and then he holds out his pinky.

"I... don't want to do that," she says, shaking her head. 

"Yeah, I dragged it, I dragged it, I got that. But are you _sure_ you ain't doing anything on these sheets? I won't tell!"

—

The living room is just covered in ribbons and balloons and more lace than any one of them has ever seen in their entire life -  _cough_ , Jess's closet,  _cough_ \- and Nick doesn't even yell at Cece for the mess because, well, he wants to but it's her wedding and she'll cut his balls off in his sleep if he does.

Cece's pacing back and forth, and Schmidt is too, and - Is he wearing a  _headset_? Who's he barking orders in that thing to, the doves? Whatever.

Nick goes to the fridge and grabs a beer, and then another one, because Schmidt has a _headset_ , and then he pulls his phone from his pocket and texts Jess a: 'Where are you?'.

Jess responds: 'In my room. Roof?', and Nick's glad they're on the same page. He goes to the fridge and grabs out two more beers and heads up.

When he gets up there, Jess is already sitting at the table, a beer in each hand.

"Oh, hey, think we have enough?" Nick jokes, and then he sets all of the beer he's holding down and takes a hand to Jess's kneecap, giving it a squeeze. "Sorry to like, summon you up here, I just needed to get away from all that  _lace_."

"Oh, I know, but the lace isn't even bad. Did you see the headset?"

Nick twists the cap off of his beer and rolls his eyes. "I want to punch him in the face."

"Yeah, well..." She twists the cap off of her beer, or attempts to, and then after a few seconds she gives up and holds it out to Nick. "You do it."

He does, and then he hands it back to her and says, "I can't believe you like beer now."

"I'm allowed to change my mind, you know," she says, taking a sip.

"I know." He takes a long breath, and then he says, "I wanted to kiss you earlier, you know. You were wearing that skirt. The red one."

" _Oh_ , does that do it for you?"

He nods. "Uh huh. Kind of."

"Really? Red, though? I thought the black one was your favorite."

Jess blinks when Nick doesn't say anything, and then she gulps. "Kiss me, Miller."

Nick wants to, he does, and he's licking his lips and thinking about what she's wearing - or not wearing, whatever - under that robe, and - "Really?"

"I mean,  _yeah_..."

He sets down his beer and rubs his lips together, and he inches in close to Jess. 

"Well?"

"I'm  _adjusting._ "

"You're ' _adjusting_ '? To what?"

"The - The kiss."

"The kiss?"

"It's just - It's been a long time, Jess, that's all."

"Did you forget how to kiss someone, Nick?"

"No, I didn't  _forget_ , Jessica, I know how to  _kiss_."

"Then  _do_ it."

"I told you, I'm  _adjusting_."

Before Nick can say anything else, Jess leans in and cups his face in both of her hands,  _because she can_ , because a big part of her just missed this, okay? She feels his lips surrender against hers and she almost lets out a tiny moan when he kisses her with a little more forcefulness than she kissed him. He's holding the hair at the back of her neck, and  _shit_ , now his hand is rubbing on her thigh, and they haven't kissed like this in two years, and it's so familiar but also so  _not_ familiar, and when Nick pulls away from her Jess swallows thickly.

"I told you I didn't forget."

—

Jess barges into Schmidt's room hoping Cece's in there, and she's about to burst out into a, "NICK KISSED ME!", but she stops herself.

"H-Hey, Ceec. You okay?"

"Uh huh. More than. I finished my vows -  _by myself_. I didn't even have Winston's help, - mostly because he refused to take the money I tried to bribe him with."

Jess widens her eyes.

"Is it bad to mention the Douchebag Jar in them, though? It's a crucial part of the story, but like, will Schmidt's mom think I'm calling her son a douche on our wedding day?"

"Um. She might. I would take that part out,  _just_ to be safe."

Cece grabs the piece of paper off of Schmidt's bed and scribbles an entire line out. "Got it. No Douchebag Jar. So... How's your night? God, Schmidt didn't give you orders or anything, right? I mean, the headset is pretty sexy to me, but I knew it'd annoy you guys."

"Schmidt is in the living room having a heated debate on Jordan almonds with May, so, no," Jess says. "Hey, are you two still sleeping apart the night before the wedding?"

"Actually..."

"Cece! It's _one night_ , and it's tradition."

"Yeah, one I  _won't_ be following," she says, rolling her eyes. "I hate sleeping alone."

"One night. If you want, I'll stay with you."

"It's not the same, Jess. No offense, but you hog all of the covers and you put your cold feet all over me and I hate it."

"Just think about it," she pleas, and Cece rolls her eyes again. 

" _Just_ think about it," she repeats, and Cece, just to shut Jess up, says, " _Fine_.", and then Jess leaves and doesn't tell Cece what happened on the roof minutes ago because she thinks it'll just be a Her and Nick thing for now.

—

_Two Days Before The Wedding_

"I'm urinating  _constantly_ , I'm stress-eating Jordan almonds, and Julian pushed back my hair appointment. I'm a mess."

"Schmidt, all you have to do is put on a tux and show up," Jess says as she refills his coffee. "Think about all the work Cece has to do."

"What, walk down an aisle? That's easy. We learn how to walk when we're  _babies_ , Jess. She's been preparing for this moment everyday since she was what, ten months old? Me, not so much. No one gave Baby Schmidt a tux, that's for damn sure."

—

Jess and Aly are on Decoration Duty, and by twelve noon, everything is where it needs to be - and most importantly, out of the loft, which was slowly starting to resemble its own mini Party City.

When they get back, Cece is at a hair appointment with her mom, and Schmidt's  _finally_ seeing Julian, and Coach and May are probably still sleeping, and Nick and Winston are playing Xbox on the couch because the house hasn't been Cece and Schmidt Free in what feels like a decade, and no one's talking about _weddingweddingwedding_ for a second.

"Call of Duty?" asks Aly, and then she grabs the controller out of Nick's hand.

"Hey! I was beating your stupid boyfriend. He sucks."

"Well, now I'm beating him, so beat it."

Nick groans and lifts himself off of the couch, and then nervously shoves his hands in his pockets when he realizes the only other person in the room is Jess.

"Hey Nick."

"Jessica. Hey."

"Why do you say it like that: ' _Jessica_ '?"

"I said 'Jessica',  _Jessica_."

"Look, can we - Roof?"

"What about 'My Room'?"

"You have soft pretzels in your bed, Miller."

"I  _do_?"

"You did."

"Oh my God, you're so judge-y, Jess."

—

They're just laying in Nick's bed, - sans the pretzels, thank-you-very-much -, and they're not doing anything but talking, but it doesn't matter, because for months and months and months they had to pretend they didn't enjoy talking to each other just because of all these  _feelings_ , but they're best friends and they're so good at that, at being best friends.

"I kind of stress-ate some Jordan almonds before too," Jess confesses, and then she opens her mouth wide and breathes in Nick's face. "See?"

"I don't smell anything Jess, I don't think Jordan's almonds have a smell."

"Well they're not  _Jordan's_ , they don't belong to Jordan, they're just  _Jordan_."

"Well, whatever they are I bet they're stupid, because Schmidt made me buy ten bags of them with my own money. I'm broke now."

Jess buries her face in his shoulder, and she almost forgets what they can and can't do together for a second, and she smooches him, right there on the shoulder. "Sorry," she says, apologizing a second after it happens.

"No, it's - it's okay, Jess."

"So, I told Cece I'd sleep at her place with her tomorrow night, but she won't budge. Don't _you_ think she and Schmidt should sleep apart the night before the wedding?"

Nick sits up and leans against the wall. "I don't care what they do, but I think  _you_ ," he says, and he almost sounds like he's about to tease her, "should sleep here tomorrow night. With me."

"What? I - I don't - I -"

"Not like  _that_ , I just meant - Because Coach and May are in your room, and the couch is uncomfortable as hell no matter how big of a pillow fort you build, and - I don't know. Don't you miss sleeping in my room? I miss you sleeping in my room."

Jess sits up now too, and she lets her hand graze his knee. "Shut up, Nick."

"What'd I say?" he asks, obviously confused.

"Too much," she says, and now  _she's_ the one teasing. She leans into him and kisses him with a little more passion than the way she kissed him last night on the roof, and he groans her name against her lip when she does, and then they fall back onto the bed.

—

_One Day Before The Wedding_

Cece's packed and ready to go a little after noon, and before Jess can rush her out the door Schmidt's going over a checklist with her. 

"Schmidt, for the last time, she doesn't need a picture frame with  _that_ ," - and Jess points to the frame Schmidt's holding in his hands; it's a picture of him leaned up against the window in the loft, all dramatic, head down, eyes sad, _so_ Schmidt - "inside of it. Go away. You'll see her tomorrow. At the wedding."

Cece's the one who pouts at that, and she drops the handle to her luggage and races over to Schmidt, giving him 'one last kiss' - (it's the fifth 'one last kiss', and Jess is in a rush). 

"Do you have my button-down?" he asks when Cece pulls away from his lips, and she looks over to Jess with a raised brow.

"Yes, we packed  _three_ , Schmidt, just like you asked, and don't worry, I'll make sure she sleeps in it even though she has endless sets of perfectly good pajamas. Now  _come on_ , Cece. I still need to get a mani-pedi and you're taking forever. Make that kiss the real last one and let's _go_."

"I know, but I didn't even  _want_ to do this," Cece whines. "And the salon is open until eight, I checked."

"So I'm guessing that means you two are going to make out until 7:59 P.M.?"

Cece shakes her head and leans up to smooch Schmidt on the side of the mouth. "Okay,  _now_ I'm going. Don't stress-eat anymore Jordan almonds, I love you, bye!"

—

"Ceec?" Jess whisper-yells, and she rolls over on Cece's bed and reaches out for Cece until - No Cece. "God damn it, Cece."

—

It's 11:30 when Cece sneaks into the loft, and thank  _God_ she's marrying someone who keeps fifty copies of every key, because she didn't want to have to knock. 

"Schmidt?" She tiptoes into the living room and almost trips over a pair of boots in the doorway. They're Aly's, or Winston's, or Coach's or May's or anyone else from the cast of  _Full House_ , because that's what's going on in 4D right now.

She turns on the light in the living room and someone moves from their spot on the couch.

"Shit. Sorry, sorry, is that you, Jess?" she asks, and then she remembers Jess is back at _her_ apartment. With her. Or so she thinks. Whatever, she's the heaviest sleeper Cece knows.

"Cece?" 

Cece gasps, and then she breathes a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank God, Schmidt. I didn't want to have to explain to anyone else why I was sneaking into your apartment at midnight."

"Well, you  _might_ have to explain it to me."

She bites down on her lip. "Do I?"

"Is it because you think sleeping apart on the night before our wedding is so stupid?"

Cece laughs quietly, and then she slips one of her hands in Schmidt's. "It's because I think sleeping apart on the night before our wedding is  _so_ stupid."

"Why else do you think I slept on the couch? I was waiting for you to make a break for it. Where's Jess, though?"

"I kind of ditched her. It's fine. She'll sleep right through it and then I'll be too busy with wedding stuff to explain it all to her tomorrow morning."

"That's my girl."

—

Jess tiptoes - fine,  _angrily storms_ \- into the loft a little after midnight. She toes her shoes off by the door and throws her keys onto the living room floor, and then yells out, "Cece, I'm gonna kill - Awwwww, wait, no I'm not."

Cece's asleep, tangled up in Schmidt, the two of them under a throw blanket that's barely covering his arm let alone both of their bodies, all squished together on the smallest part of the couch. Jess wants to pull her phone out and take a picture for two reasons: 1. Because cute., and 2. Because she's going to make fun of Cece's weakness until they're eighty.

"You couldn't last  _one night_ ," Jess whispers to no one in particular.

A voice asks, "Who couldn't?", and then Jess sees Nick in the hallway and jumps. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare ya'. I thought you were sleeping out. Who couldn't last one night?"

"Look at them," Jess says, nodding over to Cece and Schmidt. "Isn't that kind of the best?"

Nick's about to say something sarcastic, but he stops himself and just nods, holding onto Jess's shoulder. "You know what? It kind of is."

—

"So, I was right. You missed sleeping in my room."

Jess sleepily bats her eyes at Nick and rolls over on her side, giving him a nudge. " _Just_ sleeping."

"I didn't mean anything else," he says. "Hey, wait, Jess, just... Here."

He shifts himself so he's spooning her from behind, and oh God,  _spooning_ , is that still a thing?

"Is that comfy?" Jess asks, gulping. "For you, I mean."

"That's why I did it," Nick says. "Is it comfy for you?"

Jess feels her eyes closing, and she feels Nick's knees at the curve of her butt, and she just nods against him.

"Okay. Goodnight, honey."

"'Night, honey," she mumbles.

—

_The Wedding_

"Okay, you two had enough fun last night, now I'm serious - you can't see each other until the ceremony, got it?"

Cece and Schmidt both say, "Got it.", and Jess says, "I don't believe you. No pulling one of those cliché, 'I need to talk to the bride! Quick! Let me talk to her behind a wall!' things that always happens in soap operas. I'm looking at you, Schmidt."

Schmidt throws his arms up in defeat. "I'll be too busy getting my face powdered."

"Well what else would you powder, man?" Nick asks, and then he wrinkles his nose in disgust at the possibilities. "Never mind."

"Let's do this thing. Let's get you both married."

—

"Um, Jess, you're the Maid of Honor, right?" Winston asks.

Jess holds her clipboard tighter and chuckles, her head titled back. "I have a clipboard that says 'M.O.H.' on it, Winston. How much more official does it get?"

"Well, M.O.H., we have a problem."

"A 'Schmidt's stress eating Jordan almonds' problem or a 'Nick insulted the rabbi in a racist fashion' problem? Because if it's the second one, it can wait. Tell the rabbi to get over it."

Winston bites down on his lip. "How about a 'The bride keeps crying her damn makeup off' problem?"

Jess yells, "CODE BRIDE! WE HAVE A CODE BRIDE!" to an empty hallway.

She races into the back where Cece is supposed to be getting ready and finds her best friend crying behind a divider - and getting  _awfully_ close to smudging mascara on her veil. "Hey, no, we're not gonna cry! Today is good! Wedding! Yay!"

Cece keeps on crying, and Winston's back there too, cluelessly taking a scrunched-up tissue and swiping underneath Cece's eyes every time she sniffles.

"I don't have a dad," she says, and then suddenly her face is black with mascara again. "No, like, obviously I don't have a dad, but I don't have anyone to walk me down the aisle."

"But you -" Jess pauses and lifts her clipboard into view, and then has to keep from gasping. "Oh my God, you're right, you don't have anyone to walk you down the aisle."

"Do you know how stupid that's going to look, Jess? My first wedding? Fine. Different concept. But I need a dad for this, and I don't  _have_ a dad, and I don't like anyone's dad's enough here to ask them to do it. No offense Jess, your dad is just - He's odd."

"Understood. Um. Winston, meeting?"

"No Jess, you don't have any meetings scheduled for today, you have a  _wedding_ , remember?"

"No, you idiot,'meeting' meaning you and me need to talk, in the hallway,  _not in front of Cece_ , now."

"OH. You shoulda said that, girl!"

"I did, Winston, you - Never mind." She drags him by the wrist into the hallway, and then she says, "You need to walk Cece down the aisle."

"Does that girl look like she has half of my genes? I can't, Jess, I'm not her dad. I'm not  _a_ dad. I'm actually very youthful, so all my mom's friends say."

Jess grinds her teeth and squeezes her eyes shut. "Winston, Cece loves you, and you love Cece, so just be her dad for  _five minutes_ , okay?"

—

Schmidt is pacing back and forth and Nick is a bad Best Man because he's kind of just... letting him, until: "Do you need Jordan's almonds or something, man? You look stressed."

" _Jordan_ almonds everywhere are crying because you keep butchering their name, and  _no_ , Nicholas, I'm perfectly calm! I'm just getting  _married_!"

"Oh, okay, no, you're - That's not calm."

"You're no good at this, my man," Schmidt says, and then he adds, "Now I kind of  _do_ need Jordan's almonds."

"I thought you said -"

"Where's Jess? She's better at calming me down than you are."

"Jess is dealing with the Cece thing."

Schmidt blinks like a madman and then tilts his head at Nick. "What - What 'Cece thing'?"

"Cece's crying. No dad. Obviously no dad, but no dad to walk down aisle. Winston is dad."

" _Please_ , for the love of God, never write children's books."

Nick shrugs. "Noted."

"Wait, did you say  _Winston_ is walking her down the aisle?"

"Well, yeah, 'cause I gotta stand up there with you," Nick says.

Schmidt laughs. "She wouldn't want you to walk her down the aisle anyway, bro. I'm Team Winston, too."

"Hey, she would and she asked me but I said, 'I'm busy', so  _there_."

"Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly how that went down, now just - Why are you just standing there?! Go get my Jordan's almonds!"

—

"Thirty minutes until showtime," says Jess, and Nick takes the clipboard from her.

"Sorry, you just - I wanted to see your dress."

Jess blushes, and then she does a little spin, because she loves this dress and she might also love the way Nick is looking at her in it.

"You look - You know - You look amazing."

"You too, obviously, so." She bites down on her lip and then says, "Is Schmidt okay?"

"Freaking out. Calling them Jordan's, not Jordan. Team Winston."

"Oh my God," Jess says, widening her eyes, "I'm never asking you to summarize anything, ever."

"Come on, be nice to me, this is gonna be our wedding everyone's at in a few years."

Jess smiles at that. "Give me back my clipboard, Miller."

—

The wedding is a go now, and  _holy shit_ , no more ribbon curling and listening to Schmidt cry about doves, and no more headsets and lace all over the apartment, and goodbye to Jordan almonds. (But they're all kind of going to miss it, until the next one).

Schmidt chokes up when he sees Cece in her dress -  _obviously_ \- and then again when Winston gives her away to him, and then  _again_ during his vows because he can't believe this is actually happening.

Cece's vows win, though, because she mentions the Douchebag Jar - for history purposes, okay?, - and everyone cries when Schmidt pulls out the five-dollar bill from the pocket of his tuxedo (especially Cece,  _especially_ Jess), and then in a blur they're kissing and they're Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt and  _they did it_ , they all did it.

At the end of the ceremony, Jess finds Nick in the crowd of people, and he takes a hand up to her cheek, swiping his thumb across it. "Mascara. Everywhere."

She laughs and inches into him. "Great."

"You did good."

"I didn't do anything," she says modestly, and Nick says, "No, Jess, but you did."

"Yeah, I guess my clipboard helped keep things semi-organized, but G3  _still_ tripped over his own shoes at the altar."

"Because he's  _Coach_. He's G-Nothing at our wedding if he trips. Deal?"

Jess grabs onto his hand and laces her fingers through his, tugging him with her out of the church and into the hallway. "Deal."


End file.
